Charge illegal border-hoppers, Rempel urges

Individuals who cross the Canada-U.S. border illegally and are not “directly fleeing persecution” should be charged, Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel said today.

In a post to her Facebook page Friday afternoon, Rempel called on the Liberal government to clearly state whether it still considers the U.S. a safe country for refugees amid a rising number of cases of people seeking asylum in that country and crossing the border to make a claim in Canada.

“Persons coming from a safe country and not directly fleeing persecution should not be able to ignore our laws and enter Canada illegally,” she wrote. “If they do, they should be charged.”

Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, Canada does not consider refugee claims from someone who has landed in the U.S., and vice-versa, because both Canada and the U.S. assume both countries will give fair consideration to such applications and fulfil their responsibilities under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

However, the election of U.S. President Donald Trump and his attempt earlier this month to implement a ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries has sparked calls from the NDP and critics in Canada for the government to temporarily suspend the Safe Third Country Agreement because of concerns that those seeking asylum in the United States are not being given fair consideration.

In recent months there has been a substantial spike in the number of individuals landing in the U.S. and then crossing the border at places like Emerson, Manitoba, or into Quebec, in order to make an asylum claim in Canada.

According to reports of a technical briefing held Thursday on background by officials from the RCMP, CBSA and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 435 people have been arrested so far this year at the border by the RCMP before being handed over to CBSA.

Officials also said they’ve seen close to 4,000 asylum cases between January 1 and February 21, compared to just 2,500 during that same period last year.

The officials said the Safe Third Country Agreement does not apply to individuals who cross the border “between designated ports of entry,” and no charges have yet been laid for the illegal crossings.

Rempel said that needs to change.

“It is not helpful for the Liberals to imply, through silence, that there is no penalty for crossing the border illegally,” she wrote. “The Liberals need to firmly state whether they believe the US is a safe country or not and act accordingly.

“As many leaders across the political spectrum have noted, the U.S. is one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. If the Liberals believe this has changed, and have such legitimate concern with that as to interpret Article 31 [of the Refugee Convention] in that light, they need to let Canadians know why this is so. If not, they need to better enforce the provisions of our law that apply in these circumstances.”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale faced criticism late last month after he said in an interview with Global News’ The West Block that most of the individuals crossing illegally were actually “transiting” through the U.S. with the original goal of ending up in Canada, rather than abandoning plans to seek asylum in the U.S.

“The vast majority … are actually transiting through the United States,” Goodale said in the interview. “Their plan was not originally to be in the United States, but to come through the United States.”

However, he did not explain why those individuals would have landed in the U.S. before crossing into Canada, rather than just coming directly to Canada.